London Riots

Fire at House of Reeves furniture store during 2011 London riots.

House of Reeves furniture store in London came to widespread public attention following the riots of August 2011. The images beamed around the world of the furniture store in Croydon going up in flames following an arson attack during the riots became a symbol of the events that spread across the country, resulting in 50,000 retailers being affected and more than 40 English town centres attacked.

House of Reeves is one of the oldest independent furniture shops in London having been founded in 1867 by Edwin Reeves, originally a barrel maker from the west country market town of Sherborne in Dorset.

Following the riots in London, 80 year old Maurice Reeves came out of retirement to assist in the clearing up and running of the furniture store alongside his two sons, Trevor and Graham Reeves.House of Reeves has seen many changes in Croydon and London, not to mention two World Wars, as a family Maurice and his sons were determined that they would rebuild and continue, although plans to rebuild on the original site turned out not to be viable.

Almost five years on from the riots House of Reeves is thriving again, thanks to the hard work of its staff and support from the community for our remaining store at Reeves Corner.

Thank you for all your donations towards the Reeves Corner fund, set up to cater for the kind support which many people wished to express, following the fire at Reeves Corner on Monday 8th August 2011. We continue to receive very kind letters

Having turned our our attention towards the future and the progression and rejuvenation of the Reeves Corner area, the decorative hoarding around the Reeves Corner site, which had many historic images from our history has now gone. The site has been reinvigorated and now has an attractive picket fence surounding it and tree planters in a gravel base within. Making a beautiful vista for the retail site we now trade from and the area in general.